Rules for a perfect conspiracy. Narrative, frame and collective action
Abstract
The conspiracy can be declined as the construction of a narrative that is potentially endlessly repeated following a pattern that has variations depending on the aim the conspirators want to achieve. The purpose and dynamics of the power group secretly in action determine the conspiratorial narrative. The aspect of secrecy encourages the negative connotation that associates the conspiratorial dynamic with revolutions, dismissals of heads of state, overthrow of the established power or the order of things, triggering the fear of totalitarian drift, just to mention some areas already known to the political disciplines (Uscinski 2018), without mentioning the narratives related to the pandemic situation. However, whatever its object may be, the conspiracy-based narrative has taken on a negative connotation that is not an essential requirement, therefore not explicit in the etymological sense. Starting from the etymology of the term “conspire”, we intend to consider the emergence of a narrative model that privileges the sense of collective action, without the constraint of the political purpose mentioned above. Moreover, the reflection on the conspiracy narrative model will also refer to elements of rhetoric and the concept of frame.
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